I. adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a rare/scarce commodity
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Soap was a scarce commodity during the war.
limited/scarce resources
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We have very limited resources.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
increasingly
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Is it also the most effective use of increasingly scarce resources to realize this goal?
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The executives' gargantuan incomes derive from their power over what has become an increasingly scarce factor of production, capital.
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They also use more fuel, therefore contributing more pollution, and use more of an increasingly scarce resource than diesels.
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As resources become increasingly scarce , choices have to be made and priorities set.
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The bait is becoming increasingly scarce as many beaches are designated conservation areas.
■ NOUN
commodity
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Soap was a scarce commodity but he as doctor had priority.
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The scarcest commodity within the firm was, quite simply, time.
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Movie cameras have become a scarce commodity .
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But what about other planets, where water may be a scarce commodity ?
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That may be true of land-a scarce commodity on a small island-but what about pay?
resource
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Competition for scarce resources is seen by sociobiology as involving various forms of behaviour.
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But Aristotle knew just enough about economies to know that time was a scarce resource .
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Tourists and immigrants are increasing the pressures on the Galapagos's already scarce resources , from fresh water to seafood.
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Rapid population growth can have other important, if less direct, consequences when it is linked to competition for scarce resources .
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What is to count as a scarce resource , for example, may change over time.
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The Green Party has little financial backing and is using its scarce resources to mount ballot-petition drives in selected states.
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How will the new millennium children reconcile conflicting demands on scarce resources against the background of global warming?
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It simultaneously deprives unprofitable industries of scarce resources .
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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After the war, food and clothing were scarce .
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Cheap, clean hotel rooms are scarce in this city, especially in the summer.
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During the war, things like clothes and shoes were scarce .
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Government departments often found themselves competing for scarce resources.
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Mayors have to juggle scarce resources to keep their cities working.
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Water is always scarce in these parts.
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With the increase in trade, good timber for shipbuilding was becoming scarcer.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Aye, but you must remember that money was so scarce in the thirties that you couldn't miss anything.
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Entirely reliable facts, other than those here mentioned, are scarce .
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In consequence, amphibian fossils become very scarce indeed in later geological periods and there are long gaps in their fossil history.
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New-model Golfs are still scarce and dealers are paying high prices to secure them.
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There is evidence that volatile materials have always been scarce on the Moon.
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There the principal threat to the diversity of fish has been competition with man for scarce supplies of water.
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Thus, female orangutans choose to live alone in strict territories, the better to exploit their scarce food resources.
II. adverb
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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Her memory returned fully ... She remembered quite clearly what she had been doing scarce ten minutes ago.
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It is past before it has scarce begun.
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The picture forming in his mind was clearer, more distinct, though he could scarce believe it.
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The problem of the prophecies was solved albeit in a way he had scarce expected.
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With his own wife he scarce dare attempt it.